


Making it Up as We Go

by Ellamoose



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Comfort, Fix-It, Fluff and Angst, M/M, brief mention of PTSD, brief mention of Sam/Eileen, finale coda, super soft fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:55:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27681820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellamoose/pseuds/Ellamoose
Summary: When you've saved the world as many times as the Winchesters and Family, don't you think they deserve a proper retirement? (A brief Fix-It after the finale of Supernatural)
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 8
Kudos: 52





	Making it Up as We Go

The first thing that Castiel notices is the grass beneath his hands, the blades of it weaving between his fingers and the morning dew dampening his hands. He takes a long, slow breath in and grips the ground, feeling the dirt build up under his fingernails. Castiel slowly opens his eyes. Unsure of what to make of this moment; it all feels so real but he knows the Empty would never let him go. But here he is, laying on his stomach in the grass of some random field, and his vision is still focusing when he looks sideways at the figure standing in front of him.  
“Hello.” He blinks slowly and smiles at that voice. A hand reaches down to help him up, and it pulls him to his feet effortlessly.  
“Hello Jack.” He smiles at his son who’s staring at him with calm and benevolence. Castiel cocks his head, noticing the difference in how Jack holds himself. Jack steps forward and wraps his arms around Castiel. He returns the hug without hesitation, but he scans the area around them, looking for any clue as to the why, how, and where of the whole situation. He hears a small sniffle from Jack, whose face is buried in his shoulder.  
“I missed you, Cas.”  
He releases Jack from the hug and holds him out at arm’s length, scanning him. “What happened? How am I back?”  
Jack smiles at him again, sniffling as he looks at his father. “It’s a long story, and… you deserved it.”

—-

“Hey Cas.” Miracle looks up at the name. Dean pats him on the head as he walks past him to gather up the trash collecting by his couch.  
“I know this is stupid, angels can’t hear prayers in the Empty but…” Dean flops down on the couch, his elbows resting on his knees. Miracle hops off his bed and trots over to him, sitting between his legs and resting his chin by Dean’s elbow. Dean slowly and thoughtfully pets Miracle’s ears with both hands as he stares at the floor. He mulls the words over before saying them aloud, “I wish you woulda given me the chance to talk about what you said. And I shoulda said something before... when I found you in Purgatory. I wish I could’ve said these things to you before, man. But, I think I knew, Cas.”  
Dean feels the tears welling up in his eyes and scrubs a hand over his face. “I think I knew how you felt. But I was scared, because I didn’t wanna find out if I was wrong.” Miracle scoots closer to him and presses into his hand as he scratches the dog’s chin. He fixes his eyes on Miracle’s fur, focusing on the texture and color and the way it moves when he pets the top of his head. Anything to help keep him grounded.  
“I miss you, Cas.” He looks around his room, almost like he’s expecting Castiel to materialize. But he knows that won’t happen.  
Dean pats Miracle on the head one more time, sighing at how he must sound like an idiot, stands up and walks out of his room. He grabs the keys to the Impala on the way through the door and makes his way through the bunker. Miracle trots along next to him and the easy companionship this stray dog has given Dean so quickly helps lessen some of the pain in his chest.  
“Sammy!” he calls towards the bunker’s kitchen where he can hear his brother washing dishes, “Heading out for a drive, the dog’s going with me.” He takes the steps two at a time and heads out the door before Sam can ask where he’s going.  
Dean opens the passenger door, allowing Miracle to jump in the front seat while he rolls down the window for him. “Good boy,” he says as he pats him on the head and carefully closes the door. Starting up the Impala, Dean feels a small bundle of nerves build up in his gut, but he tries to fight it off. He’s Dean Winchester, and he shouldn’t be nervous about anything.

In town, Dean pulls the Impala into the car shop’s driveway, and parks it around the side by the door that has Office painted in big blue letters. He shuts off the engine, and stuffs the keys in his jacket pocket. His left hand still has a strong grip on the steering wheel as he stares at the door. Miracle hangs his head out the passenger window, panting and likely leaving drool streaks down the side of the Impala. But Dean doesn’t really care about that at the moment. He taps the steering wheel a couple times, contemplating whether he really wants to go in.  
“Mr. Winchester?”  
The question pulls Dean out of his thoughts and he looks up to see the balding man he’d met at the grocery store the other day. He’d gone up to Dean to comment on the Impala and struck up conversation in the parking lot.  
“Hi, Mr. Daniels,” Dean says as he steps out of his car, the familiar creak of the door giving him some comfort, “‘Dean’ is just fine.” He offers the man his hand to shake.  
“Well then you can drop the ‘Mr,’ everyone around here just calls me Daniels. Shall we head inside?” Daniels gestures to the office door. Dean nods and motions for him to lead the way. Miracle gives a small, inquiring bark, to which Dean quickly says, “Stay.”  
“Good looking dog there, Dean.”  
“Thanks. My brother and I just found him on the side of the road a couple weeks ago. He’s a good dog.”  
Inside the office, there are large windows that look into the garage where they have an SUV and a small Sedan both on risers. He watches as the mechanics work together in harmony as they move about the small spaces between the cars and storage bins, wheeled tool boxes, and boxes of new inventory. It’s a crowded, little building, but Dean had gotten a good impression from Daniels during their chat outside the grocery store, and the quiet, local, out-of-the-way business sounded like it would be a good fit.  
“So,” Daniels motions for him to take a seat as he sits in his own chair behind his desk that has three very precarious piles of paperwork sitting on it, “Like I said before, I need a mechanic with some experience. My two boys out there are good, but they’re still new.”  
“What happened to your last mechanic,” Dean can’t help but be curious, years of hunting will do that to a person.  
“You’re looking at ‘im,” Daniels gives a half smile, “I’m getting too old to be out in the shop. Hands aren’t what they used to be.” He pauses for a moment, watching his two sons as they go about changing the oil on both cars in the shop. Daniels looks back at Dean and smiles, “That Impala out there… phew! She’s in good shape.”  
Dean smiles with pride, “Thank you, sir. My dad taught me how to take care of cars, and gave her to me about 15 years ago.”  
“And have you worked in a shop before?”  
“No. But I’ve worked a lot of odd jobs, picked up a lot of skills. Running into you was dumb luck because I’ve just started looking for a more permanent job recently.”  
“More like dumb luck for me,” Daniels chuckles, “I’ve been looking for someone to take my place for months. Just glad I noticed your car at the grocery store when I did!”  
The two men chat amicably for quite some time, Dean can’t even be sure how long. Daniels invites him to bring Miracle in the office rather than sitting in the car, so Dean takes a moment to run out and grab the dog. They head back into the office, and Dean sees Daniels drop a manila folder on his desk. “Well, Dean. I want you to look at the contract first, but I hope you’ll say yes.”  
Dean reaches over and grabs the folder. He sits back in his seat, absently rubbing Miracle’s ear as he scans the paperwork in the folder. Dean feels a slight pang of guilt for not saying something to Sam first, but this job pretty much fell in his lap and after everything, he likes the idea of having a normal job.  
He smiles at Daniels, “Where do I sign?”

—-

“You got a job?” Sam asks incredulously.  
“Yes, Sam. No need to be a dick about it. I got a job at the repair shop in town.” Dean takes a sip of his beer, feet resting on the war room table, watching Sam work through this news.  
“Wow. Well, I’m happy for you Dean. Really. But what about this case?” Sam gestures to the laptop he had slid across the table to Dean when he first sat down.  
“What about Eileen? Or some of the other hunters. Jack brought them all back, didn’t he?”  
“Well, yeah…” Sam runs his hand through his hair thoughtfully. He looks at Dean with a thin sheen of suspicion. “Are you feeling alright?”  
Dean scoffs at him and lets his feet drop to the floor. “I’m fine, Sam. I just wanna enjoy a little non-monster life. We just defeated God, Jack’s taken the wheel,” he hesitates for a second, “Cas is gone… I’d just like to not get punched in the face for work for a little while.”  
Sam’s look softens at the mention of Cas’ name, and he sighs, “Alright.”  
“Plus,” Dean adds with a grin, “It’ll give you a chance to catch up with Eileen post-latest apocalypse.” He waggles his eyebrows and Sam chuckles as he shakes his head.

Dean helps Sam pack up one of the other cars in the bunker’s garage, and he and Miracle watch as Sam drives out of the garage’s huge blast-proof doors. His tail lights shrink as he drives further away until Dean’s view is obscured by the doors swinging themselves shut and automatically locking. There’s a slight hum as the doors enact the locking mechanisms and the warding is restored.  
Things have been more peaceful since Jack defeated Chuck. There are fewer monster attacks, but Dean knows that they’re still out there. Maybe the harmony Jack mentioned with Amara means the monsters themselves are also less active, but Dean’s never been one to assume the best case scenario, even though he’d like to in this case. Sam seems to be extremely focused on continuing the job; he reconnected with the hunters he’d tried to save from Chuck’s rapture as soon as Jack brought them back, and he had gone to see Eileen almost immediately after they came back to the bunker.  
The idea of hanging up his gun hadn’t occurred to Dean until a few days ago. It was two weeks into being back at the bunker after saying goodbye to Jack: he found Sam pouring over lore and cross referencing it with a news story he’d found, and he hadn’t even noticed when Dean left to go to the grocery store. That was when he met Daniels, and he realized maybe this is what Cas would have wanted for him. After defeating Chuck, and after everything else. Maybe Dean deserved to live a life where he could help everyday people in a different way.  
He looks down at Miracle and grins. “Well, what do you wanna do now?”

—-

Dean wakes up covered in sweat. Miracle is laying across his chest, whimpering. He looks around with wild eyes, realizing his legs are tangled in the sheets and his hands are curled into bone-crushing fists. Slowly, Dean unclenches his hands and tries to massage the joints in his fingers that are now screaming at him. Miracle kicks his back legs in order to scoot a little closer to Dean’s face and presses his cold, wet nose against Dean’s neck.  
He lets out a huge sigh, and reaches up to pet the dog’s head. “Thanks buddy.”

The bunker is quiet with Sam gone. Dean gets up after the nightmare and wanders the halls until he gets to the kitchen. He gets the coffee maker running and leads Miracle to the front door for a break outside while the coffee brews.  
The exterior door opens with a loud creak and a blast of cold, autumn air hits Dean like a cold bucket of water. It’s kind of refreshing, even though he starts shivering immediately. He watches Miracle jog over to the grass on the other side of their dead end road and sniff around. Dean crouches down, tilts his closed eyes to the sky and tries to take in the moment - the fresh air, the sound of the trees rustling faintly, and the crunch of the gravel beneath his boots as his weight shifts from his toes to his heels. He lets out a calming breath and opens his eyes. Miracles has wandered a little far so Dean whistles for him to come back. It takes a moment, but then he sees him bounding through the first line of trees, and across the road to Dean.  
Old habits die hard, so Dean triple checks the doors as he closes the exterior and interior doors to the bunker, before heading back down the staircase to grab some coffee. He takes two steps towards the kitchen when he feels the air in the room change. He freezes in place, looking down to see Miracle facing the opposite direction and staring at something. Dean feels every muscle tense; he knows there’s someone behind him.  
“Hello, Dean.”  
Those two words make it feel like someone just punched a whole through his chest, his shoulders hunch and he swears his heart has dropped into his shoes. Dean whips around and can’t even really comprehend what he sees. It’s Cas. And Jack. Both standing there like nothing’s happened.  
Dean’s mouth falls agape, but no words come out. He just looks back and forth between the two of them, wildly trying to get his brain to process what he’s seeing. Miracle walks up to the two of them, sniffing both their pairs of shoes as well as Cas’ coat.  
“C- Cas?” He stutters. “How are- what… what?” In any other situation, Dean would be embarrassed by how dumbfounded he must sound, but right now he’s trying to figure out if he’s lost his mind, if it’s a trick, or if - somehow - this is real.  
Jack steps around Cas, smiling at Dean. “I did it. I got Cas back, Dean.” His smile grows into that positively ecstatic grin he gets sometimes as he looks between Dean and Cas.  
Dean gulps. His hands feel clammy. But he steps forward, and reaches a hand towards Cas’ face. His hand is shaking and he feels like the rest of him is too.  
“Cas?” He looks deep into his eyes and Dean’s hand stops to rest on his shoulder.  
“It’s me, Dean.” That gravelly voice acts like the first and last domino for Dean. He practically falls into Cas, crushing him in a frantic hug. He can feel himself shaking as Cas slowly wraps his around him. He realizes his eyes are shut, but there are tears streaming down his face.  
Words just start pouring out of Dean, not even caring that Jack is still standing in the room somewhere, “I’m so sorry Cas. I’m so sorry. If I thought I could get you back… I shoulda looked. I’m so sorry.”  
He feels Cas dip his head into Dean’s shoulder, and let out a long breath he must have been holding.  
“After Chuck brought back my father from the Empty, I thought I should try.” Jack’s voice helps bring Dean back down to Earth. He takes in a deep breath and lets go of the death grip he had in the back of Cas’ coat. He blinks a couple times, swiping both hands over his face to clear away the tears. The three of them move to sit at the table in the war room, the backlight of the table illuminating their faces. Miracle walks around to sit next to Dean and leans against his leg.  
“So,” Jack shrugs and continues, “The Empty was still awake, after everything that happened. And, I needed angels to help fix Heaven. So we came to an agreement.”  
Dean looks at Cas, who avoids making eye contact. “How long have you been back?”  
Cas quietly says, “A week. But Jack needed my help in Heaven. And…” Cas stares at the table with apprehension, and it breaks Dean’s heart, “I wasn’t sure if I should come back here.”  
The tension in the air feels like it’s crackling. Dean can feel his heart beating a mile a minute as he stands from his chair, walks past the chair between them and crouches down in front of Cas, and places a hand on Cas’ forearm. “You’re an idiot, Cas. Don’t ever be afraid to come home. If you’ve been back a week, you’ve heard my prayers, Cas. I just wanted you back so damn much.”  
Cas shakes his head, “I can’t hear prayers. I’m not an angel anymore, Dean. I had to give up my grace to come back.”  
Dean inhales sharply, he’s not sure he can take any more earth-shattering news today. He looks into Cas’ eyes, searching for that same look he gave Dean when they were waiting for Death to kill them just a few weeks ago. “Cas, you’re human?”  
He looks away from Dean, and glances at Jack before looking down at Dean’s hand on his arm. His jaw tenses as he stares at that hand, but nods once, letting his eyes fall shut as a tear falls down his face. Dean looks over to Jack, trying to comprehend everything happening, and the boy just gives him an encouraging smile.  
Dean’s hand moves up to Cas’ face, and rests against his cheek. Cas opens his eyes and stares at Dean, raw fear, anguish, anticipation and hope all swirling in those blue eyes. He stands up enough to scoot the other chair closer, so he can sit knee to knee with Cas without breaking eye contact. Dean leans forward, placing his other hand on the other side of Cas’ face and leans forward until their foreheads touch. “You’re still my Cas.”  
The words open a floodgate in Cas. He leans in even more, wrapping Dean in another hug, letting his forehead fall to Dean’s shoulder. The way they’re hugging while still sitting is a little awkward, and it makes Dean’s back protest, but he wouldn’t change it for the world. He just holds Cas, the two of them overcome with emotion. Jack stands, walks around the table and gently wraps his arms around the both of them.  
They stay like that for who knows how long. Until finally Jack stands up. They release each other from their hug and look up at him as he stands before them, smiling.  
“You’re leaving again, aren’t you?” Dean feels a weight sink in his stomach as he says it out loud.  
Jack nods slowly, but continues to smile. “I have a lot of work to do. But you both deserved this.” He raises a hand in his simple Goodbye and quickly fades.  
Dean looks back to Cas, who still has a handful of Dean’s sleeve in his grip. They fall back into each other in a tight hug.

—-

They lose track of time as they sit on the couch in Dean’s room and talk. Miracle sits between them on the couch and Dean plays with the dog’s ear as he tries to figure out how to phrase everything he wants to say. But Cas doesn’t rush him, and there’s no one else around to interrupt as they talk.  
Finally, Dean somehow finds his way to telling Cas that he wants to take a break from hunting.  
“You got a job?” Cas looks surprised and it makes Dean let out a laugh that’s almost too loud for this intimate, quiet setting.  
“Why is everyone so shocked that I got a job?” Dean laughs again, but not because of that, he laughs because he feels happy. Because this moment feels right, and like it was long overdue.  
“I’m not surprised, Dean,” Cas gives him a fond, but serious look, “I’m proud of you.”  
That sentence makes Dean freeze for a second, unsure how to absorb it. Instead, he watches Miracle hop off the couch and up onto Dean’s bed, turning in a few quick circles before collapsing in a small, curled position. The dog lets out a contented sigh and Dean can’t help the smile that spreads across his face.  
“So,” Dean bumps shoulders with Cas, “What do we do now?”  
Cas smiles at him. “I guess, we make it up as we go.”

**Author's Note:**

> Just needed to write something that gave Dean and Sam more hopeful endings. They both deserve to be with people they love, other than just each other. And I needed to process my grief somehow! Hope you all enjoy, and please comment!


End file.
